Raw Arts Festival

This year sees the real­iza­tion of the third Raw Arts Fes­ti­val. Pre­vi­ously held in Lon­don, the Fes­ti­val aims to become one of the world’s first trav­el­ing fes­ti­vals as it moves to Valen­cia, Spain. While attempt­ing to inte­grate into to the com­mu­nity of Valen­cia this year Raw will as always exhibit strong, new and strik­ing art­works from a wide vari­ety of artists in a cel­e­bra­tion of human­ity, spirit and spon­tane­ity. Piers Mid­win­ter, the Festival’s cre­ator and direc­tor, com­mented on the ethos behind Raw and its cur­rent success.

Kate Hickey: You have stated before that the aim of this fes­ti­val is to exhibit that which is “out­side the artis­tic main­stream.” Do you think that you have achieved this?

Piers Mid­win­ter: Yes, it fea­tures estab­lished Raw artists such as Eliz­a­beth Turn­bull. Her art resides in Spain’s Out­sider art museum. Ewan McDougall describes him­self as a paint­ing ani­mal. Dover Abram’s art is highly orig­i­nal. Jenik has a taste for the primeval. Lori Vynalek has a dis­tinct and vibrant style and Franco Mel­oni and Sue Kre­itz­man are untu­tored and visu­ally strong. My art­work will be exhib­ited too.

The Fes­ti­val also fea­tures upcom­ing Raw artists: Julia Sisi and Jorge Berlato from Spain. Julia tries to show the impres­sion peo­ple leave in her inner world. Jorge lives in Valen­cia and gives his art an inti­mate feel­ing. Karin van der Plas paints in a won­der­fully naïve style. Steve Wright’s art comes from a deep place within his psy­che. One other artist has Dis­so­ci­ate Iden­tity Dis­or­der. Ambroise Ander­son and Des­tin Domond are being rep­re­sented by Fon­da­tion Sant D’A Jak­mel. Its mis­sion is to empower the Hait­ian peo­ple through art and cul­tural activities.

KH: How would you now define the ethos of the Fes­ti­val in its third year?
PM: A Time Out arti­cle is quoted as say­ing “Valen­cia stands out as a cen­tre for dynamic cre­ativ­ity and far-reaching projects.” This sums up why Valen­cia is the best venue for the 2006 Fes­ti­val. It is impor­tant not lose sight of the muse; the sense of free spirit and spon­tane­ity. The show has a truly inter­na­tional cast with artists liv­ing in Britain, Canary Islands, Haiti, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Tas­ma­nia and USA. Some upcom­ing Raw artists will be trav­el­ling a long way to get to the exhi­bi­tion such as Renate Sef­fer from the Caribbean Island of Grand Cay­man, Nino Kor­in­teli and Lia Pantsu­laya who are both from Geor­gia near the Black Sea. This will help to cre­ate a truly unique expe­ri­ence.
KH: In the past you’ve also been quoted as say­ing that it is “the expe­ri­ence of being there is more impor­tant,” rather than win­ning prizes or sell­ing work. Do you think this is true of the Fes­ti­val as a whole?

PM: Art­works have been sold at my Fes­ti­vals. But this is not what they are pri­mar­ily about. So the answer is yes: because cre­at­ing Raw art is an expe­ri­ence whether it spir­i­tual, emo­tional, intel­lec­tual et cetera. A Fes­ti­val that stays true to the art form should be no less.

KH: Since its found­ing in 2004, the Raw Art Fes­ti­val has grown from strength to strength. What do you think has been its secret to success?

PM: I started paint­ing in 1989 or to put it another way, the 2006 Fes­ti­val has been at least 16 years in the mak­ing. Sev­eral things are at its heart: respect­ing the peo­ple I work with, dis­cov­er­ing the undis­cov­ered, deter­mi­na­tion to make it work, stay­ing true to the cre­ative spirit, book­ing good qual­ity artists and orga­ni­za­tions, find­ing peo­ple who are inter­ested in bet­ter­ing them­selves in some way and finally doing what I want!

KH: How many artists will be exhib­ited this year and what was your process in select­ing them?

PM: There are 25 artists. I use a first-come first-served pol­icy and then select the best.

KH: On a global scale what do you feel is the role of fes­ti­vals, such as Raw Art, within the art world?

PM: I hope to change people’s per­cep­tions of what “non-mainstream” peo­ple are capa­ble of and what art is. It helps us to remem­ber who we are, where we came from and where we want to go. We’re taught that what you get out of life is directly pro­por­tional to what you put in and that there are dif­fer­ent kinds of suc­cess. This fes­ti­val empow­ers artists.

KH: Why do you think it is that your fes­ti­val remains under-acknowledged in the UK while it has been so suc­cess­ful elsewhere?

PM: My Fes­ti­val takes place in Valen­cia. So I will deal with Span­ish inter­est first. Col­lab­o­ra­tion between Fun­da­cion La Caixa in Madrid and the Dublin Museum of Art has resulted in an exhi­bi­tion of Out­sider art at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. Spain has an Out­sider Art Museum in Altea. Raw Vision has high­lighted Span­ish Out­siders such as Jo Farb Her­nan­dez. The ABCD Art-Brut col­lec­tions in Paris and Prague con­tain art by three Span­ish Out­siders: Gironella Joaquim Vicens, Her­nan­dez Miguel and Rodriguez Miguel. I could go on—but in essence, the Span­ish not only fully acknowl­edge Out­sider art—they openly cre­ate it too!

As for the British interest—I sus­pect that some peo­ple were a lit­tle unsure of what to make of me at the first Fes­ti­val. But things have moved on—I took heart from the fact that the 2005 Fes­ti­val was very well attended and resulted in at least ten arti­cles from pres­ti­gious British pub­li­ca­tions includ­ing: Raw Vision and the Times. The col­lec­tion of Out­sider Art at the Tate con­sti­tutes a per­ma­nent acknowl­edge­ment. The recent Whitechapel exhi­bi­tion dis­plays Out­sider Art and the influ­ence it has had on well known famous artists includ­ing two Spaniards: Miro and Tapies. My fes­ti­val in Valen­cia has much in com­mon and as a result I have been con­tacted by sev­eral British journalists.

KH: What has been your high­light while work­ing as the art-director of the Festival?

PM: I think it’s sim­ply being able to make a pos­i­tive difference.

KH: The Fes­ti­val works in col­lab­o­ra­tion with many artis­tic char­i­ties. How did this come about and how did the two join forces?

PM: Between 1993 and 1996, I stud­ied Art Prac­tice and the Com­mu­nity at Mid­dle­sex Uni­ver­sity. This allowed me to work with non-mainstream peo­ple. I had sev­eral place­ments. One was with a char­ity in North Lon­don which caters for adults with autism. I worked for them on a part-time basis. I ended up co-organizing three exhi­bi­tions, fund-raising £1000 and sell­ing over £2000 of their art. I was awarded the Uni­ver­sity prize. I have been in touch with the art-worker ever since.

KH: Will this fes­ti­val be dif­fer­ent to the last two due to its change in location?

PM: Valen­cia is Spain’s third biggest city and among the liveli­est. It is located by the Mediter­ranean Sea. Dur­ing the sum­mer it is heav­ily vis­ited by tourists. Valen­cia holds a plethora of artis­tic and cul­tural activ­i­ties which help to cre­ate a vibrant atmos­phere. The start­ing date of the Fes­ti­val has been timed to fit between the 2005 and 2007 Valen­cia Bien­nial. It does attempt to com­pete with it—but instead com­ple­ment it by offer­ing peo­ple in Valen­cia a non-mainstream alter­na­tive for the first time.

The gallery, Color Ele­fante, is in the heart of the city; it is relaxed, well-lit and has an English-speaking assis­tant. My web­site is infor­ma­tive and has a Span­ish trans­la­tion. The Fes­ti­val is being heav­ily pro­moted by the NY Arts Mag­a­zine and Even­tisimo pub­lic rela­tions agency in Valen­cia. These things will encour­age widen­ing participation.